NEW YORK (AP) — A day after a New York jury delivered a historic guilty verdict in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee held a press conference Friday where he spoke publicly about the conviction and his White House bid. Following his conviction on Thursday , Trump had angrily denounced the trial as a “disgrace,” telling reporters he was an “innocent man.” His supporters were quick to echo those sentiments while many of his critics — political and otherwise — applauded the verdict.
Trump was convicted of 34 felony charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex. The hush money trial and subsequent conviction mark the first time a former U.S.
president has ever been tried or convicted in a criminal case. He still faces three other felony indictments , but the New York case was the first to reach trial and likely the only one ahead of the November election. Judge Juan M.
Merchan scheduled Trump's sentencing for July 11. The charges are punishable by up to four years in prison, though the punishment would ultimately be up to Merchan. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to say whether prosecutors would seek prison time.
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